It was a sunny afternoon in Alice Academy, and all the students were itching to go out and play. It's three twenty-nine. Just one more minute until the bell rings.

30 seconds…

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

"Okay, class is dismissed!" Mikan said with a smile, and the students packed their stuff and headed out the classroom. As the class started leaving, Mikan started gathering her things as well. She waited for all of her students to leave before she went out and closed the door.

She walked in the hallway, as students greeted her while she passed and of course she greeted them back. She was about to enter the faculty room when a gush of wind flew a handful of her papers off her hands.

Those were important papers!

Mikan sighed and began chasing after them. A few minutes had passed before the papers finally landed on the ground. Fortunately all of them landed on the same spot. She gathered all the papers and was about to head back when she noticed where she was standing, right in front of the Sakura tree, the same tree that held dear memories from her childhood. It was the Sakura tree from long ago.

"Wow. I haven't been here in a long time." Mikan said to no one in particular.

This place was where she would hang out with her friends, and especially: Hotaru, Ruka and of course, Natsume. It had been years since she last saw any of them, and yet she could still remember the last day they were all gathered together under this tree as if it were yesterday.

…

It was graduation day. Ruka, Hotaru and Mikan were standing under the Sakura tree…

"I can't believe we finally graduated!" Mikan exclaimed happily, stretching her arms up. "School's finally over! No more studying! Yay!" Then she started running to Hotaru, wanting to give her a big hug "Hotaru!"

BAKA! BAKA! BAKA!

"Ouch! Hotaru that really hurts!" Mikan rubbed her hands to her forehead which was now very red.

"That's what you get for being too noisy." Hotaru said with her signature expressionless voice. Even though years have passed Hotaru was still the same Hotaru in elementary school, which means she still uses her famous baka gun, especially on Mikan. "Be thankful I only used the baka gun and not the baka missile."

"Anyway, so, what are you going to do after you leave the academy Hotaru?" Mikan asked gleefully.

"I'm going to start my own company, sell and earn billions." She said and her eyes started glimmering with dollar signs.

"What about you Ruka-pyon?" Mikan asked.

"I'm not sure. Maybe I'll be vet or something." He replied.

Ruka smiled more and more nowadays ever since he knew Natsume is safe from harm. The evil organizations, Persona, and the elementary principle were defeated, and now Alice Academy was safe. Parents were now allowed to visit the school, but only during the weekends and holidays. The students were also allowed to leave during vacations, which was fantastic since it meant Mikan could visit her grandpa again. Although some things never change, Ruka still carries around a rabbit like always and Hotaru still sold pictures of him.

"What about you Natsume?" Mikan asked, and then turned around to find that Natsume wasn't there, "Where's Natsume?"

"I think he's still being chased by his fan club." Hotaru answered, "Oh, there he is." She pointed to her right, and Natsume was there running away from his fan club.

"Natsume's fan club seems to be more energetic than usual." Mikan commented.

"That's because they're trying to get his Alice pin." Hotaru said.

"Alice pin?"

"You see Mikan," Ruka said, "There's a legend that says that during every graduation, if a girl gets the Alice pin of the guy she likes, then they would end up together forever. So his fan club is chasing him, hoping to get his Alice pin."

"Oh… what about you Ruka-pyon? Why aren't YOU being chased by your fan club?"

"Well, that's because someone already took my Alice pin."

"Who? Who?" Ruka looked to his side, signaling that Hotaru had his pin. "Hotaru, you took his pin?" Mikan asked surprisingly, "So, does that mean you guys are going out?" Mikan had on a huge smile as she said that. She loved teasing Ruka and Hotary together.

BAKA! BAKA! BAKA!

"Hotaru!" Mikan complained.

"You shouldn't be nosey, baka." Hotaru said.

"Natsume! Give me your pin!" Mikan heard one of the fangirls scream.

"No, give it to me!" Said another one.

"Shouldn't we help him?" Ruka asked, but before anyone could reply, Natsume used his Fire Alice and all the girls started running away. Natsume started walking towards Mikan and the others. Mikan noticed that his unbuttoned outer polo long-sleeved shirt was kind of torn. Good thing he was wearing a shirt inside.

"Are you okay Natsume?" Ruka asked the second he reached the Sakura tree.

"Damn girls." He muttered while he sat down panting.

"Hey Hotaru, what're you doing?" Mikan asked Hotaru, who was on the other end of the tree. Hotaru starts showing Mikan pictures of Natsume being chased by his fan club. "Wow! They're so nice and clear, considering that they were all running" Then Hotaru starts scanning the rest of the pictures. "Wow! There's a picture of Ruka-pyon too!"

"Me?" Ruka asked, and walked to Hotaru, who was already printing the pictures. As usual, Hotaru's eyes were shimmering with dollar signs.

"Hey give me those!" Ruka demanded and reached for the pictures. Hotaru hopped on to her flying swan machine, with the pictures in hand, and started flying away from Ruka.

"Hey! Come back here!"Ruka shouted, and chased after Hotaru using the horse that he called using his Alice.

Now, Natsume and Mikan were left alone. She sat next to him under the tree and looked at him. Natsume didn't really change. He was still the same quiet, annoying persone that Mikan met back in Elementary school. Even though he would smile and laugh more often now, he still had that aura of darkness surrounding him

"Oy, polka, would you stop staring." Natsume said. Mikan didn't notice that she was still looking at him.

"Natsume? Would you stop calling me that?" She shouted at him. "Even until graduation you still call me with that annoying nickname you pervert!"

"Would you stop screaming? You're making my ears bleed."

"Sorry… oh, yeah I almost forgot, what're you going to do after we leave the academy, Natsume?"

"…." He looked down and avoided Mikan's eyes.

"Natsume…"

"It's none of your business anyway polka." His eyes were still looking down.

"Polka? Natsume, how come you never call me by my real name? Well, maybe except that one time, but other than that, you always call me polka. My name's not that hard to pronounce. Hmph." She said and she looked to the opposite direction.

"Mikan" He said softly, and Mikan slowly turned her head around to look at him util they were both looking directly at each other.

"Natsume…" Their faces were so near each other that they could feel the other person's breath. They were moving closer and closer, their lips almost touching.

"Yo! Mikan, there you are!" Tsubasa yelled from a few feet away. As soon as they heard Tsubasa's voice, they both separated as far as possible from each other, and looked at opposite directions. "Hey Mikan, long time no see! Uh, did I interrupt something?"

"Tsubasa-senpai I missed you!" Mikan stood up, ran to him and gave him a hug. She avoided the question entirely. Then she saw Misaki over Tsubasa's shoulder walking towards them. "Misaki-senpai!" She stopped hugging Tsubasa-senpai and ran to Misaki-senpai to hug her. "I missed you as well!"

"I missed you too Mikan." Misaki-senpai said, returning Mikan's hug.

"How's Toshiu?" Mikan asked.

Misaki and Tsubasa started dating on their senior year and got married a few years after their graduation. Mikan was even the one of the bride's maids of their wedding and Toshiu is their two year-old son.

"He's playing with Narumi-sensei. You know how Narumi-sensei gets along with kids" Misaki answered.

"That's because he acts like one." Natsume said. Mikan had completely forgotten that Natsume was still there.

"Natsume, I see that you're still the same as ever." Tsubasa said and then ruffled Natsume's hair.

"Get your and off me or I'll burn you into a crisp." Natsume said with a serious tone, and Tsubasa-senpai immediately let go of Natsume. Natsume then started walking away.

"Hey Natsume where are you going?" Mikan yelled

"None of your business polka."

"DON'T CALL ME POLKA!"

A few hours later, it was the time for all the graduates to leave the academy. All graduates were given an amount of money to start their lives, and the rabbits that they saved were turned to real money. Everyone was gathered at the front gate as they said their goodbyes to each other. Even the teachers and principals were there to say their goodbyes. Suddenly, a black limo stopped at the gate and everyone stared at it, wondering who owned it.

"Well that's my car." Hotaru said calmly.

"That's your car Hotaru?" Mikan exclaimed.

"Hotaru you really are quite amazing!" Anna said.

"I'm going to miss you Hotaru." Mikan said and then she started tearing up. She hugged Hotaru and Hotaru hugged her back. This was one of the rare moments where in Hotaru doesn't use her baka gun. "Promise me that we'll keep in touch okay?"

"I promise." Hotaru said and Mikan's tears kept on pouring. "Baka, stop crying will you. You look even uglier when you cry."

Those were Hotaru's last few words to Mikan just before she went inside her car. The black limo started moving and before you knew it, the car was out of sight. It was replaced by a shiny silver blue limo.

I wonder who owns this one.

Then Mikan suddenly saw Ruka and Natsume walking to the car with their luggage being carried by some men in uniform.

"Ruka-pyon this is your car?" Mikan asked in amazement.

"Yeah… Well technically it's my mom's." Ruka replied.

"Promise me you'll keep in touch okay? I don't want to lose contact with you, Ruka-pyon." Mikan said. Ruka blushed a little.

"Yeah I will." Ruka said.

Mikan hugged him and Ruka was caught off guard, and blushed even more. After a while he hugged her in return, then he went to his parents and started talking to them. Mikan walked over to Natsume.

"Hey Natsume, promise to keep in touch too 'kay?" Mikan said with a smile. He just looked at her with that face of his.

"Hn"

Mikan couldn't help but hug him. Even though he was annoying and always teased her, she was still going to miss him. Surprisingly, he hugged her back, but only for a brief amount of time. Then both Ruka and Natsume headed for the limo.

"Bye Mikan!" Ruka said before entering the car.

"Bye Ruka-pyon!" Mikan replied, waving at him.

"Bye, Mikan" Natsume said softly, but loud enough for Mikan to hear, and then he tossed something to Mikan, which she caught easily. He entered the car without even looking back. Mikan just stared at the silver blue limo as it drove out of sight.

Did… did Natsume just call me Mikan?

Mikan looked at what Natsume tossed at her. It was an alice pin. His Alice pin.

That was the last time she saw Natsume.

….

At first Hotaru and Mikan tried to stay in touch, and for a while they did. Then they both started getting busy until their daily calls became weekly, then monthly, and eventually it just stopped. Ruka would send Mikan some e-mails and postcards once in a while, but she never saw him in person. As for the famous black cat, Natsume Hyuuga, she hasn't heard anything from him except when he's sometimes mentioned in Ruka's letters, and even the mention of his name faded away after the first year. Mikan hasn't even thought of Natsume in a long time.

A few years after graduation, Mikan decided to teach in Alice Academy. During her first few years of teaching, she would walk by this tree and remember all her friends, but after a while her classes were too far from this place and she was just too busy to stop by. Sometimes she would accidentally see Natsume's Alice pin when she looked for jewelry, and she remembered him; but other than that she wouldn't think of him nor Ruka, not even Hotaru. I guess you can say, they just all drifted apart.

…

The next day, Mikan was walking in the hallway, carrying a stack of papers with her left hand and a cup of coffee with her right. It was a perfectly normal morning. Not a lot of people are awake at this time so it was pretty quiet. She walked into the faculty room when her phone started beeping. She placed her things on her table and opened her phone.

1 NEW TEXT MESSAGE

She opened it and it was a blank message. She looked at the caller ID and it was an unknown number. Then suddenly her phone started beeping again and messages simultaneously came and they were all coming from the same number

BEEP! BEEP!

Mikan

BEEP! BEEP!

MIKAN

BEEP! BEEP!

Notice someone missing?

BEEP! BEEP!

Guess what?

BEEP! BEEP!

YOUR FRIEND IS DEAD

BEEP! BEEP!

And ALL your loved ones will follow

BEEP! BEEP!

Unless…..

And that was the last of it. There were no following messages. Mikan kept telling herself that it was probably just a prank, but she had a gut feeling that this guy was serious. She tried to forget the weird messages and started reading her lesson plan.

"Hey, did you hear what happened in the news last night?" Mikan overheard a male teacher ask his friend.

"Yeah I did. I feel sorry for the family." His friend said.

Mikan wondered what happened in the news. She wasn't able to watch because she was teaching the DA class on how to control their temper, and that took all night.

"Did you hear about what happened to Anna?" A female teacher asked her two friends.

Once Mikan heard "Anna", she suddenly thought of Anna from Elementary School, which was weird since…

Nah, it couldn't have been her. Anna is a common name. Maybe it's just a coincidence.

"I feel sorry for her." One of her friends said.

"I feel sorry for the child. She must be crying right now." Her other friend said.

No it couldn't be the same Anna. Mikan said to herself.

"Kazame doesn't want to leave her room or let anyone in there. She's been crying and sobbing." Mikan heard someone say.

"What do you expect? Her mother died." The other teacher said.

As soon as Mikan heard those words, her body felt numb and she dropped her papers, then it scattered on the floor.

So it is the same Anna! I have to go to Kazame.

Mikan ran to the dormitory where Kazame, Anna's daughter, was staying, forgetting about everything else. Once she reached Kazame's door, she tried opening it, but it was lock.

"Kazame open up, it's me Mikan." Mikan said and tried knocking again but still there was no answer. "Please Kazame, open the door. I just want to comfort you." Finally the little girl opened the door and her eyes were all puffy and full of tears.

"Sakura-sensei!" She said as hugged Mikan, while her tears kept on flowing.

"Its okay, it's okay. I promise to find out who did this to your mom." Mikan told her, "I swear it"

Mikan stayed in Kazame's room and comforted her in every way she could. She told her to take the whole week off in class and just rest first. Kazame's friends came to her room right after their class was done and tried comforting her as well. Mikan looked at them and then left the room because she knew they would be able to comfort Kazame. Mikan walked straight to the high-school principal's office where she knew she would find her uncle, the principal. When she reached the door she knocked on the door three times.

"Come in" He said and Mikan entered the room.

"Mikan, what brings you here?" Her uncle asked.

"What happened to her?" Mikan asked seriously

"Oh Anna, well, she's as you probably know dead."

"Did she die, or was she killed?"

"Well, she was… murdered."

"Who would want to murder Anna?"

"Well, regarding that. There have been some rumors going around that they are back. We investigated on it and there is no confirmation yet whether they are still alive or not. There have been some hints but there was no evidence. But sad to say, I think they're alive and are the ones who killed Anna."

"How did she die?"

"The cause of death was definitely unusual. Her body was found in a warehouse by a worker there and of course since she's a former Alice student, we investigated the crime scene. Other than a few bruises and minor injuries there were no other traces of injuries. The weird thing is, when her dead body was inspected there was a hole in her chest where the heart is located. And the hole had no burn marks so it wasn't by gunshot, and tests showed that the hole wasn't made using any material known to man. Her heart was also not there, in both the body and the entire warehouse."

"So there's no heart."

"Yes and no. A fisherman in Korea found a heart while he was fishing and tests confirm that it is indeed Anna's heart, but it's impossible for the heart to be in Korea unless you have the transportation Alice. How else could they have transported a heart all the way to Korea?"

"But why would they separate the heart from the rest of the body?"

"That is yet to be determined."

"Where is Anna's body now?"

"Her body is still being inspected for further information, and hopefully we'll figure out how she died and why they decided to cast away the heart."

"Where is her body being inspected?"

"In the Alice Biology Center just a couple of blocks away from here."

"I'm going go to there."

"Okay, but be careful. If they are back then—"

"They are back. I received these messages simultaneously just this morning and they mentioned Anna being dead and how she's not the only person they intend to kill."

"May I see these messages?" Mikan's uncle said and scanned through Mikan's inbox messages. "Where's the message after this message that says 'unless'?"

"That's just it. There was none."

"I see."

"Well I guess I'll be going to the Biology Center today. I'll use the car. I just need to prepare some stuff. Can you find a sub for me?"

"Sure Mikan"

"Oh, and I told Kazame to not go to classes for a week. Is that okay?" Mikan asked just before reaching for the doorknob.

"Of course" He said and Mikan left to go straight to her room.

Once she entered the room, she walked to her closet and changed her clothes. She wore a lavender-colored shirt with the sleeves reaching until her elbow and was buttoned from top to bottom in the middle, simple denim jeans, sepia knee-high boots, the flat kind and she tucked her jeans inside the boots, a thin brown belt and a black trench coat. She grabbed her bag and stuffed it with things that she might need and grabbed her car keys that were on next to my jewelry box. Then she went straight to her car and drove to the Alice Biology Center. After a few minutes, she arrived. She parked her car, and walked inside the building, straight to the director.

"Why hello Mikan, how may I help you." The director said. He was an old friend of the high school principal, and since Mikan's the one who now does missions for the Academy, as well as other things, she gets to see him often.

"I'm here to see Anna's body." She said bluntly.

"Ah, I see." He said and led her to a room. "We already did an autopsy of her body but other than the obvious cause of death due to someone taking the heart, nothing yet had been found.

"Well maybe I'll find something."

"Ah yes, you always seem to find something that even our top doctors can't. Okay, here it is." He said and a security guard was guarding the door. "She is here to see Anna's body too."

"Too?" Mikan asked, "Someone else was here to see her body?"

"Yes and they're probably still inside." The director said.

Mikan was curious as to who they were. Anna's family, except for Kazame, were all in America. The director led Mikan inside and to her surprise, two people were inside: One was a woman with an expressionless face and short black hair, while the other had blond hair and was carrying a rabbit.

"Hotaru? Ruka?" Mikan asked. It was surprising how both of them were there.

"Ah, I see you know these two. Well, I should be going now." The director said.

"Yes. Thank you Director." Mikan replied and he walked out the door.

"OH MY GOSH! HOTARU AND RUKA WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" Mikan said a little too loudly.

BAKA!

"That's what you get for being too noisy polka." A man in the shadows said.

Polka? No one calls me that except…

Mikan looked at the man closely and indeed it was him. Natsume Hyuuga.

Natsume, Hotaru and Ruka? What are they doing here? What the heck is going on?